Invited research talk and mini workshop by Dr. Richard Kern, Associate Professor of French and Director of the Berkeley Language Center (UC Berkeley)

Research talk title: "Hello Lyon? This is Berkeley… Can you see us?" : The promise and perils of desktop videoconferencing in the French classroom

This presentation describes ongoing research related to a computer-mediated collaboration between Masters degree students in teaching French as a foreign language at the University of Lyon II and intermediate-level French students at the University of California, Berkeley over a three year period. Based on direct observation of interactions, analysis of screen and room video recordings, interviews, questionnaires, text and artifact analysis, the presentation will explore students’ and apprentice teachers’ uses of spoken, written, and visual communication, their socio-affective responses to the exchanges, and their various adaptations to the affordances and constraints of the medium.

Writing and the visual media are our main resources for learning about and relating to all the past and present worlds outside our own community. When we examine the particular ways that other people use language to express ideas and experiences, we not only learn a lot about the conventions of the language--we also have a chance to begin to understand the beliefs and values that underlie other people's uses of language. This workshop will focus on practical ways of integrating reading and writing in motivating classroom activities, with the aim of improving not only students' literacy skills but also their overall ability to communicate. We will examine ways of linking reading, writing, and thinking activities to encourage students to deepen their reflections on the texts they read and to make them more aware of their own role as integral participants in the meaning-making process.

Inbau, Buckley, and Reid’s (1986) seminal training manual for law enforcement personnel posits
there will be differences in responses to a set of structured interview questions as well as
differences in posture between liars and non-liars. While these assertions seem to be understood
as being true in some law enforcement circles, little systematic research has been conducted on
either topic. This talk will present the preliminary results of two empirical studies designed to
test Inbau, Buckley, and Reid’s assertions. The first study examines questions that focused on the interviewees’ views on possible motives and appropriate punishments for the crime, namely stealing a check, as well as how they would fare if asked to take a polygraph test. Liars and non-liars’ responses are compared. The second study examines popular cultural beliefs regarding deceit and posture. Popular culture tells us that body posture, namely crossed arms or legs, slouching or sitting upright, directly
facing an interrogator, tucking feet beneath one’s chair, or leaning away from an interrogator are
nonverbal clues to deception. However, a recent literature review suggests that body behaviors
such as postural shifts do not show a significant correlation with deception (DePaulo, et al,
2003). The data presented come from work with law enforcement personnel who interrogated
experiment participants within a high-stakes situation - a situation where there are clearly
defined and known consequences for getting caught in a lie and clearly defined and known
benefits for getting away with a lie. These results, though preliminary, may change our beliefs
about body posture and their link to deception.

2008 Applied Linguistics Colloquium Series

This semester students and faculty in theTESL/Applied Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and Technology programs will present their current research and projects. Please join us in Ross 212 for the following presentations:

Applied Linguistics Lecture: Taking features apart and putting them back
together again by Dr. Donna Lardiere

Over the past two decades within formal linguistic approaches to SLA, the failure of many adult language learners to reach nativelike grammatical proficiency has been descriptively modeled in terms of an inability to reset one or more parameters from the L1 value to that of the L2. More recently, this view has been updated in terms of “parametric feature selection” in which certain features that are morphologically expressed (or “selected”) in the L2 but not in the learner’s L1, are claimed to be no longer available, resulting in the phenomenon of incomplete L2 acquisition known as “fossilization.” Using findings from a recent longitudinal case study (Lardiere, 2007) and a cross-sectional study (Choi & Lardiere, 2006), I show how the formal task facing a second language learner is actually much more complex than the parametric “selecting” of a new feature such as [+past] or [+plural] in the target language. In sum, I will argue that acquiring the L2 involves determining how to reconfigure or remap features from the way these are organized in the L1 into new formal configurations on possibly quite different types of lexical items in the L2. This is a formidable learning task that goes far beyond the simple “switch-setting” or “selecting” metaphors often used to characterize the acquisition of a second-language grammar.

Fifth Annual Technology for Second Language Learning Conference

The Fifth Annual TSLL conference will take place September 21 and 22, 2007.
The theme is "Towards Adaptive CALL: Natural Language Processing for
Diagnostic Language Assessment". Professor Robert Mislevy from the University
of Maryland will be the Plenary Speaker.

2007 Quentin Johnson Lecture

Professor Wynne Wong from The Ohio State University will present the 2007 Annual Quentin Johnson Linguistics Lecture Thursday, October 25, at 7p.m. in 1213 Hoover Hall. A reception will follow.

Input Enhancement: Theory, Research and Classroom Practice

No matter what theoretical framework or context second language acquisition (SLA) researchers work from, they agree that acquisition cannot happen without exposure to comprehensible input. SLA scholars are also in agreement that while input is an essential ingredient of successful L2 acquisition, exposure to input alone is not sufficient. There is a general consensus that in order for input to be usable for acquisition, learners must minimally pay attention to the input in some way (e.g., Robinson, 1995; Schmidt, 1990, 1995, 2001; Tomlin & Villa, 1994). The position that attention to input may also be a necessary condition for successful SLA has prompted researchers to investigate whether L2 learners’ attention to input may be enhanced so that the potential for intake, that is to say, the feature(s) of input that learners attend to and process in some way, is maximized. In this presentation, Professor Wong will first talk about the theory of input processing as a theoretical framework for input enhancement. She will discuss two techniques of input enhancement as pedagogical tools, specifically, structured input activities and textual enhancement. She will present her in-progress empirical study on textual enhancement that uses eye tracking as an online measure of attention

Applied Linguistics seminar

A seminar entitled "Input Processing Instruction: Establishing a Research Agenda" will be given by Professor Wynne Wong from The Ohio State University On Friday, October 26 from 10:00-11:30 in Ross 212.

2007 Applied Linguistics Colloquium Series

This semester students and faculty in theTESL/Applied Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and Technology programs will present their current research and projects. Please join us in Ross 212 for the following presentations:

Monday Feb. 19 @ 12:00 Erik Voss

Using Video for Language Learning with the Electronic Film Review (EFR): Exploring Lesson Plans and Task Types (Abstract)

Dr. Roy Lyster will present on April 13, 2007 from 3:30-5:00 in room N-147, Lagomarcino Hall

This talk will first address the need for teachers to provide feedback to
second language learners in terms of feasibility and effectiveness. Then
different types of feedback will be explored in terms of their
appropriateness for different instructional settings, different types of
learners, and different types of linguistic targets. The talk will
illustrate how language teachers can exploit a range of interactional
feedback types, which vary from implicit feedback in the form of recasts
that scaffold interaction and facilitate students' participation, to
feedback in the form of prompts and other signals that push learners to
extend their linguistic resources.

About the speaker:

Dr. Roy Lyster is Associate Professor of Second Language Education and
Co-Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Integrated Studies
Education at McGill University in Montreal. His research focuses primarily
on immersion and content-based classrooms, including both observational and
experimental studies of teacher-student interaction, form-focused
instruction, and corrective feedback. Results of his research have appeared
in journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language
Learning, Applied Linguistics, Journal of French Language Studies, International Journal of Educational Research, Modern Language Journal, and The Canadian Modern Language Review. Author of Learning and Teaching
Languages Through Content: A Counterbalanced Approach, published by John
Benjamins in 2007, he is also President of the Canadian Association of
Applied Linguistics.

2006 Applied Linguistics Colloquium Series

This semester students and faculty in theTESL/Applied Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and Technology programs will present their current research and projects. Please join us in Ross 212 for the following presentations:

Tuesday Oct. 17 @ 3:00 Viviana Cortes

A comparative study of lexical bundles in history writing in Spanish and English (Abstract)

Technology and Second Language Conference, Fall 2006 conference

The Fourth Annual Conference on Technology and Second Language Learning was on the theme of Learner Strategies in CALL. Keynote speakers were Dr. Andrew Cohen, University of Minnesota, and Dr. Phil Hubbard, Stanford University. Read more...

Bryan Smith - Call Club Guest Lecturer 2006

Professor Bryan Smith, University of Arizona

Technology and Second Language Conference, Fall 2005 conference

The Third Annual Conference on Technology and Second Language Learning was held in conjunction with the Conference of the MidWest Association of Language Testing. Plenary speaker: Professor J. Charles Alderson, Lancaster University, UK. Read more...

Leonardo's Laptop

Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies

Ben Shneiderman
Friday, April 15, 2005 1:00 pm
Hoover Auditorium

Ben Shneiderman is a professor of Computer Science founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, and member of the Institutes for Advanced Computer Studies and for Systems Research, at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is a Fellow of the Association for Computing and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He received the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Deborah Schiffrin is Chair of the Linguistics Department, Georgetown University and author of Discourse Markers; Meaning, Form, and Use in Context: Linguistic Applications; Approaches to Discourse; and Handbook of Discourse Analysis, co-edited with Heidi Hamilton and Deborah Tannen.

Merrill Swain Lecture via ICN

The Merrill Swain Lecture at the University of Iowa will be broadcast at ISU via the ICN network on Friday, April 22, 2005 at 4:00 p.m. in N147 Lagomarcino.

Tom Cobb--Call Club Guest Lecturer 2005

Friday, April 29, 2005
Professor Tom Cobb, University of Quebec at Montreal

Ron Scollon--Quentin Johnson Lecture 2005

Conference on Technology for Second Language Learning

The second annual Conference on technology for second language learning took place on October 02, 2004 at the Memorial Union on the Iowa State campus. Read more...

*** Doctoral Program in Applied Linguistics and Technology

The Department of English proposal was approved at the meeting of the Iowa Board of Regents on May 19, 2004. Applications for the program are due January 15, 2005 for the program scheduled to begin in fall semester 2005.

Join the CALL Club

Visit the Call Club website for information about meeting times.
All are welcome!

Stephen Alessi--Call Club Guest Lecturer 2004

Stephen Alessi from the University of Iowa gave a lecture on computer-assisted language learning.

Elaine Tarone--Quentin Johnson Lecture 2004

Elaine Tarone gave a lecture at ISU this spring semester. Click here for more information.

Alexandra Johnston presentation on Nov. 14, 2003.

Conference on Technology for Second Language Learning

Conference on technology for second language learning--October 10-11, 2003 at the Memorial Union on the Iowa State campus.

ISU Faculty and Students Attend...

International WorldCALL conference held in Banff, Canada May 7-10,
2003. Students presented a paper with Professor Hegelheimer.

Visitors from the University of Concepción

Ernesto Figueroa and Emerita Bañados of the University of Concepción in Chile visited from April 26-May 2, 2003.

Cynthia Myers Received Fulbright Grant for Fall 2003

Cynthia Myers, adjunct instructor of English, was awarded a Fulbright grant to go to Chile to work on a web-based English course for students at the Universidad de Concepcion in Concepcion, Chile. The project is coordinated by a development team of Chilean faculty there. During her semester stay, she consulted on materials development and evaluation for the project.